


But All I See Is Rain On Christmas Day

by Jen425



Series: A Hundred Heroes Welcome You Home [47]
Category: Kamen Rider - All Media Types, Kamen Rider Ex-Aid, Tokusatsu
Genre: Angst, Christmas, Grief/morning, M/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-12
Updated: 2020-06-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:27:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24676120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jen425/pseuds/Jen425
Summary: No - it’s not even blue.
Relationships: Houjou Emu & Poppy Pipopapo, Houjou Emu/Kujou Kiriya
Series: A Hundred Heroes Welcome You Home [47]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1782238
Comments: 5
Kudos: 17





	But All I See Is Rain On Christmas Day

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this for a school thing ages ago. Figured today was as good a day as any to clean up & post.

It’s a blue Christmas, is what it is, blue and rainy and miserable in an instant. Blue like the “human” eye on Kuroto’s helmet, staring at them as he walked away, calmly, not laughing maniacally as he can do, and maybe that’s worse. Blue like the rain, chilling his bones. Blue like the sparks which had come off of and become Kiriya’s body until there was nothing left of Kiriya but the Game Driver In Emu’s hands.

No, it’s not even blue.

Rain is grey, and rain clouds rid the world of colors.

Grey.

Colorless.

He lays there, on the ground, kneeling and only not crying because he isn’t the type to, hasn’t cried since he was an eight year old boy who would quite literally die for a reset.

Who had tried for that reset, regardless. He thinks—

_Your smile is proof of your health._

Kiriya has smiled. He’d smiled, and left the world in Emu’s hands, and faded away in his arms, still wearing that ridiculous floral print shirt and not lying, for once.

He hopes. He has to cling to Kiriya’s belief.

But all Emu can do is look at where his ally had faded away and clutch the last gift he’d given him. Neon greens and loud pinks, the Game Driver.

Kiriya…

Taiga leaves, surprisingly without a fight. Emu thinks about what he knows about the unlicensed older doctor, and finds himself less than surprised. Graphite would have defeated him on a day just like this. It would have been a day just like this when he failed and watched his life fall apart. When five people died of Game Disease and he couldn’t stop it, fired for trying too hard.

(Is that what’s coming for Emu?)

The rain soaks him to the bone.

He continues not to move.

“Get up, Intern,” Hiiro says, slightly less uncaring than usual.

(Saki had made Hiiro truly smile, the Director had admitted, when Emu asked him about it. He had always been quiet, been bad at emotion, but Saki had made Hiiro healthy.

So of course her death from the Game Disease on Zero Day had broken him, shut him down further.

If Emu actually thinks about it, he knows that Hiiro understands _exactly_ where he’s coming from. But all he can think about right now is that his new partner is _gone._ )

Emu barely hears him.

“You do no good to us sick.”

Emu just shakes his head, clutching Kiriya’s Driver even harder. Hiiro sighs, says something to Asuna that Emu ignores, and leaves without another word.

Without making any sound to hint at the summoning, Emu sees the flash of light to indicate Asuna’s “Costume Change!”

He realizes what it means when he stops feeling the rain fall on him and looks up at his nurse and dear friend, her Poppy Pipopapo true form’s pink hair just as wet as her Karino Asuna’s brown, holding an umbrella with a fancy hilt.

Probably for dancing, opened just for him. Because he’s sitting in the rain. Not crying.

Because Kiriya is dead, here on Christmas Day.

“Emu…” Asuna says, kneeling down in front of him. She places her hand over his… over Kiriya’s Game Driver.

_The fate of the world is in your hands._

“He just… faded away,” Emu says. Like a Game Disease patient. That feels… important, somehow. “Asuna…”

Asuna pulls him tightly into a hug.

Finally, with a loud hiccup, he sobs, and not long after, her cries join his.

It’s Christmas Day, and he goes home alone.

And everything is grey.

  
  
  


(Far away, Parado leans into his host’s emotions.

“You hurt M pretty bad, Genm,” he says. Kuroto huffs.

“Kujo Kiriya served his purpose,” he says. “I couldn’t risk secrets being revealed. Besides, finding out about you would kill my project.”

Parado smirks. Kuroto still has no idea…

This isn’t truly his game.)

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on Tumblr @flaim-ita or @dancingqueen-mai for just Toku


End file.
